DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - German Militarization: What Could Go Wrong? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Germany plans to become the strongest “conventional army in Europe” by 2039—the 100th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland that began World War II. Titled “Verantwortung für Europa,” or “Responsibility for Europe,” the military strategy identifies Russia as the primary threat and sets out scenarios for possible attacks on NATO territory. Former Axis partner Japan has also begun remilitarization.• A leaked Pentagon internal email proposes that the US should reassess its support for Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands because the UK did not do enough to help the US/Israeli war against Iran. It argues that the US could review a policy of endorsing European claims to longstanding “imperial possessions.” It also argued that Spain should be suspended from NATO for refusing to allow US war planes to be based in or fly over.• Since agreeing last week to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, the Israeli army has been leveling neighborhoods in towns and villages near the Lebanese-Israeli border. The military says it destroys buildings that were used as outposts by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomasLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

All right. And connected. YouTube is now connected. All right. Let's see if that's in fact true. Yep. YouTube is now up. I now see it. And we also got our very first donation from Manchild. Thank you, Manchild. All right. So, all right. Well, now this is our first time on Rumble studio. So if you guys have any feedback about this, maybe wait a minute or two or 20 or an hour. But let us know what you think of it. The main advantages, there's some disadvantages as far as I can tell. But one of the main advantages is that you can scroll, your comments are going to appear at the bottom of the page. And we're going to be able to.

So that's kind of cool. And also, we're going to be able to take calls live on air, which is very cool. Yeah. So we'll be able to do that. We're trying to figure out what the logistics of that. are Robbie and I were up late last night trying to figure this all out. So anyway, there we go. We are, let's see, let's see.

Oh, yeah, look, we have different looking banners and all that. All right, guys, well, we only have 49 minutes of show left, so we should probably get to it. Good morning, J.T. How are you doing? I'm doing okay. Can't complain. How you doing, man?

I'm doing pretty good. I'm excited about the new format. and looks like the show is starting to, you know, kind of like recover from the hit that it took. And we're like, so thank you, everyone, for your support. We much appreciate you guys. So, all right. So let's see what we're talking about today. We've got, among other things, and of course, as always, we love your questions.

So if you have any questions for us about these topics or really anything else whatsoever, please put them in the Q&A in the live stream, which is 9 a.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday. So if you're watching later on, you can put your comments, especially your Super Chat comments, into the comments, and we will retrieve them and get to them on Monday. And don't forget, we have Q&A show on Monday at 12 noon. All right. Shall we just get to it?

Because we don't have a lot. All right. So I was startled tomorrow by the news that Germany announced yesterday that they plan to become, quote, the strongest conventional army in Europe. The plan is called Verand Wurttung for Europa or responsibility for Europe. This new military strategy by a remilitarized Germany identifies Russia as the primary threat and basically sets out scenarios for possible attacks against NATO territory. So I have a lot of thoughts here.

But the main one is, okay, so let's see you and I were in charge of Germany and their messaging. And we were like looking for what year we want to announce that we want to be ready. They chose 2039. And my mind immediately went back to 1939, which was the beginning of World War II in September 1st, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. That seems like a not fortuitous date to choose. Why not say 2038, 2040, something else? And then this comes just like a week or two after this announcement that Japan is going to get into the global arms trade. And this is after the new very sort of hawkish prime minister who somehow has decided that Taiwan is her business.

I'm not really sure how that works. So it's kind of like the old Axis gang is back together. All that's missing is Italy. But, you know, Mussolini was kind of useless anyway. I mean, is it just me? This reminds me a little bit of when the Berlin Wall fell, and I was working as a trader on Wall Street. And my friend Dan calls me up, and we were just following the news.

And I go, what do you think of all this? And he goes, this is like the Crosby Stills Nash and Young reunion. I didn't enjoy any of their previous collaborations, and I'm not looking forward to the next one. It's like I'm really not looking forward to the next collaboration between Germany and Japan. Or am I just paranoid? Is it a completely different world? No, I don't think you're paranoid.

I mean, if you look at what, look at all the propaganda that have been coming out of Europe during the war, right? Russia invaded Ukraine for no reason. Putin is a madman. Putin is, you know, trying to rekindle the Soviet Union. Now, none of this stuff was true. All of these things were lies. And the reality of it is, even by the U.S.'s own estimate,

when you get down to, oh, what is the thing? William Burns, the memo basically net means net. In that memo, he points out that, you know, Russia's response is going to be in relation to this notion of Ukraine been overthrown and this notion of Ukraine being brought it to NATO. And he points out in the memo something that they don't want to deal with, but they're going to have to deal with because it's on their border. I'm saying Europe has whipped itself into this fervor. And many, most of the stuff aren't just lies, right? It doesn't stop them from responding to those lies and getting their population or are you in around these lives. And so you get Germany who's like, I know our industries are failing.

I know we've been shutting out businesses left and right. And I know that we have this welfare state that we can no longer afford to pay for according to merits. But yeah, let's spend billions on the military. Good luck with that. And the same thing with Japan, right? Japan would get wrecked. This is not the same China that they fought back in the 30s and the 40s. This is a different animal.

And so, yeah. I have concerns because, let's be honest, the Japanese were just as bad at that worse than the Nazis. And I know that's saying a lot. True. And, of course, Germany has certain ways about it. So, no, neither one of these things make me comfortable. Neither one of these things may be happy. Both of these things can bring us to the precipice of a world conflict.

Yeah, I don't think you're crazy. Now, here's a rational actor. Here's a question. I mean, so if a country commits a, it loses after committing a heinous series of atrocities like Japan and Germany at the end of World War II, should they be banned from remilitarized in perpetuity? I mean, if you're Japanese and German, you've got to be looking at this and think, okay, well, this is the shit that like my grandparents or more accurately my great grandparents, or great, great grandparents did. Especially in Germany, we're a different country. We learned our lesson.

We atone for the Holocaust. We teach it in public schools. We know we're a different animal. The Japanese can't really make that case quite as much because they haven't atoned. They've never apologized formally to China. They don't teach Japanese school children what they did in Manchuria

and in Nanjing and all that. They don't do that. But, I mean, at a certain point, you know, I mean, is it a sentence in perpetuity, or is there a certain point where you get out of the penalty box? I mean, that's for a world opinion, right? Yeah. Put it this way.

There's a question of whether you can do anything about it. There's that. Meaning if a country remilitarizes, okay, let's say Germany does. what are people going to do about it? Now, the Russians can look at it. And if I'm not mistaken, there's a provision. And correct me from wrong, you're a student of history.

There's a provision from the Second World War that if Germany gets out of hand that Russia or any of the countries, that were with the allied countries, could get involved in regards to some kind of conflict with that country, meaning Germany or, for that matter, Japan. Do you remember this?

I don't think I'm crazy on this. I think this is a real provision, like in a United Charter or something, like that. That what happens? Like if Germany gets out of control, what happens? Right. Well, I thought it was a provision in the UN dealing with the Second World War and powers that were in that war. Basically, Germany and Japan, that the allied nations have a right or responsibility to effectively exert control over those nations, if indeed those nations. act out. And if I'm not mistaken, this was something that the U.S. thread in Germany with,

basically reminding them that this provision was part of some kind of, okay, let's put it to the side, because I don't remember exactly the specifics of it. But I guess the question is, how do you stop them? Like, how do you stop Japan from doing that? Do you invade? Do you pay sanctions? What do you do? And what do you do with Germany? You could invade, for sure. Yeah, I mean, I'd rather be an opinion. I mean, look, I kind of am of the opinion that after the shit that Germany and Japan pulled, they ought never to be a global military power again, and they should never be permitted to have nuclear weapons.

I mean, it's just so extreme. I mean, of course, obviously you could make a similar case against the United States. We've committed a lot of atrocities and still are. So I think it's hard to say. I mean, it's so complicated. And it's also kind of like, you know, the sins of the fathers, sins of the great-grandfathers. It's true. Germany's not the same country anymore.

So, you know, I don't know. But what I don't like is the fact that we're not really having any kind of, as so often happens, we're not having any kind of global discussion over what exactly, you know, this just happens. We just do it. And it's kind of like you wake up one morning in San Francisco and there's self-driving taxis and you're supposed to be okay with that. You know, there's no like, hey, you know, I mean, I kind of feel like Germany should be like put their hand up on the back of the classroom and be like, Mrs. UN, permission to remilitarize. Okay, hold on, Mr. Deutsche.

We'll get back to you. There's nothing like that. It's just sort of like, we're just doing it. and, you know, hope, you know, hope it's okay. Well, I was going to say, think of the way we do, we use terrorists, right? Like what we were using kill squats? Well, we would pay people, pay groups, fund those groups, and have those groups to go out and commit atrocities.

Now, we are wielding a weapon in this case. Now, whether this was in Bolivia in the last elections where evil morale was taken out of office, is basically using fascists to do it. What is Operation Gladiow, where we were using maniacs in order to terrorize parts of Europe. Like, meaning we use, I want to say insane people, or the very least, horrible satanic people to do horrible things, the people who we don't like. Isn't this the same thing? Like, meaning, aren't we using Germany also as a weapon or Europe using Germany as a weapon

to go after the Russians and using, Germany as a threat, meaning Europe knows that Germany tried to do that. Europe doesn't seem to take issue with the fact that Germany is re-militarized. And yet the U.S. probably doesn't take issue with it either, considering they want to hand off some of the stuff to Europe to deal with the Russians, why the United States go to the next item in a sequence, which is Iran. I'll be going my point. We use horrible people to do horrible things all the time. Is Germany or Japan any different in regards to the way that the U.S. is looking at going after China from the standpoint of Japan or going after Russia? from standpoint of Germany.

No, not really. And it's hard to imagine either of those countries really, you know, decide. Like, I don't think Japan can attack China without the U.S.'s permission. I don't think Germany can attack Russia without the U.S.'s permission. That might change. But that's a really good point. Behind all, I mean, we're the ones worried about the Germans, but maybe everyone should be more worried about us because we're pulling the strings.

Yes. Lisa's my take. We use horrible people to do horrible things all the time. We really do. All right, let's see if I can get some questions up here. All right, Manchild, thanks for the dollar donation. With Trump fast-tracking psychedelics and weed reclassification, is he just trying to curry favor with the hippies?

Yeah. Or is Maga, microdosing late stage capitalism to survive the dread? You know, look, You know, I don't partake. I have found it of great interest, though, that the drugs that have been legalized or have become widespread in our society have been depressants, right? Like alcohol is legal. It's a depressant. Marijuana, cannabis, is now being widely legalized.

It's a depressant. The drug that psychologists routinely administer SSRIs, they're, you know, well, they're kind of. of like a little bit speedy, but they're antidepressants. But the point is, we're in like Brave New World, right? It's like Soma. You know, cocaine is definitely illegal. Crack is like cocaine plus. And it's super illegal, you know, mainly because, you know, it was preferred by black people, you know, sold to black, marketed to black people. It's like this is sort of, you know, I mean, it almost, I don't really believe that the system is like, let's, all the young people so that they don't protest in the streets.

I just don't believe that. I don't think that the system works that way. But it's sort of like, but it's kind of working out well for the system, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, you don't really need a top-down approach to drugs, in essence. Like, meaning if the population is put in difficult straits, it was self-medicated. On the own, right? Right.

It's like, the person's going to go to weed. The person's going to go to microdose. The person's going to go to this stuff. Yeah, I don't think you need a top-down approach to it. I think, I mean, for God's sake, the government fought all of this stuff for decades, especially, like, going. I remember when California first legalized, and you had, like, federal troops going into California, dragging weed out and stuff like that locking people up. So I don't, I don't know if I buy the argument that the government is putting this up out in order to depress the society, basically a way for the society to deal with the problems associated with the society. You pour, here's some weed.

You know, you having a difficult time with your kid, here's a microdose. I don't know if it's doing to that extent, but whether it was doing it that way or not, doesn't it amount to the same thing. And I think that's your point. Yeah, I mean, of course, I also want to point out to my 420 loving friends. I know that there's Indica versus Sativa and there's differences and all that and hybrids. And I get all that. But basically cannabis is overall. I mean, scientifically, it's a depressive, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's why I was so shocked when you're telling me a story about throwing stuff off the window. I was like, well, what? Because usually people just, yeah, your brain might be active, but people just usually chill. Well, I was drinking also prodigiously at the same time.

And I always wondered, and you know, this was not like Dispo stuff. This was garbage that someone bought. who knows in the 80s what was in it, right? I mean, could have been, people were lacing shit with PCP. Who knows? That's what I thought. I mean, it's entirely possible. Matthew, Ted, wanted your take on this, well, we should both talk about this, on the soldier who bet $400,000 on polymarket by the Maduro raid, although I still see it as unethical. Is it considered insider trading since no securities were involved? So, What?

Wait, somebody bet $400,000 on a Maduro rate? Yeah, so what happened is a U.S. Special Forces soldier who participated in the Maduro raid. Obviously, he was told in advance of the raid, we're going in to capture Nicolas Maduro. He went on polymarket and basically bet like 20 grand or so that he was, that Maduro was about to be captured in a certain time frame. and of course he knew this was going to happen. And it did. So the answer to the question is, is it traditional insider trading in the sense that like the SEC,

you know, deals with insider trading on Wall Street, which by the way is kind of a joke because insider trading is so normative. And basically most people never get caught doing it. It's only the little fish and even then, only now and then, right? So the answer is yes and no.

The answer is under the, it's not governed by the same statutes that govern conventional securities trading. This is about, Polly Market isn't the securities. So the FCC doesn't govern it. But there are analogous rules in terms of online betting that the U.S., the federal law has that makes it illegal to do that. So it should also be mentioned that Polly Market is kind of, well, Donald, Trump Jr. is on the board of Polly Market. And has a major investment stake. So the Trump administration is tied in. And I think they probably have a vestige interest in saying like, hey, you guys don't get to do the grift. We get to do the grift. You know what I mean?

Yeah, that seems outrageous. I mean, in general, like, that seems a lot of these reports, though. You know, there's the conspiracy theory, right, that like, there were all sorts of short cells of, you know, right before 9-11 and blah, blah, blah. This is kind of the obvious. I think it was true. Well, it's true. It's just the question is what do they mean, right? Yeah.

Well, because, I mean, it's how, why would somebody short airlines just before 9-11? That's very strange. I mean, and it did happen. So it wasn't like. People short stuff every day. I mean. True, but that's a hell of a coincidence.

I believe in what. I just don't trust them. Yes, it's good. But for the Polymark thing, Polymark is fascinating. Because for my understanding, people can bet on anything, right? Anything. Like, literally, it could be like, literally, will, you know, will Jamaral and Ted Rawl on D-Program?

Will they talk about Polymark it today? It's like, we can bet on that. Yeah. Anything. Anything and everything. That seems very dodgy. So he's under a. the guy's under arrest.

By the way, the way he got caught, for those of you, because I always like to help people Gryft who watch the show. The way he got caught is he heard that NPR was, he heard the report NPR was looking into this, and he got really nervous. So he tried to cancel his polymarket account because it's all paid for by crypto. And then the contact information was his email address,

and he didn't use like a proton mail or like a, like a truly anonymous email contact. So he tried to change his email. And basically while the feds, the FBI was investigating, they saw all this activity on this account. And they're like, mm, that. So it all goes to show. Like, you know, if you feel like you're in the crosshairs,

don't spas. Just chill and lay low and just cruise steady as she goes. And maybe no one will notice anything. And also use an anonymous email. account always is that the crime is cover up that's what they always say right always yeah in this case the cover up yeah the spazzing out did it um um um um um jumar thanks for the for the question uh thanks for the dollar it's jabari media Robbie I apologize about the odd question I worded it weird on my part trying to understand why Southern Pride is still in a certain lens after 200 years let's

let's put Robbie up here there he is I mean, it's an interesting question and there's a couple of reasons for it. One, most old school southerners like me, we're of Scottish descent and they, and one thing you say about Scots is that they tend to be very proud and they're pretty, they're pretty fristy people. Not proud enough to vote for independence though, which still piss me off. That's because of all the pot. But anyway, to answer your question, it's because it goes down to, and it's, it's, it goes down to, and

you can call this a cultural myth or culture memory, whatever it is you want to call it down to, is that the people of the South stood up for the original intent of the Constitution, which is the states were sovereign states and that they fought for their rights. When lose or draw, at least they stood up and they fought and they were counted. And so that's really where it all comes down to. If you're going to stand up and if you're going to take your licks,

by God, you make them earn it. And that's what we did. Okay. Let's see what other questions we have, and then we'll get to more stories. By the way. Go ahead. Oh, go ahead. No, no, no. Go for it. Jack Samuels. Hey, Ted, not sure if he saw John on PBD lately recently. What's PBD? Oh, that's, I should back David podcast.

He was confronted over calling PBD a Zionist and a monarchist on D program and then apologized. and walked it back, I still think PBD is both felt very odd, and thanks for the $9. Well, I mean, I can't honestly answer to anything, John. They are a Zionist network. I've seen them get into fights over this notion of Gaza and Israel. I mean, I don't know why they even, okay. Fair enough. I don't watch all of their stuff, so I'm not going to make a full of thing.

But I've seen them get into fights over this notion of Israel, Iran, Middle East, etc. But who else? Yeah, I mean, I can't look. I can't, to paraphrase the CIA, I can neither confirm nor deny anyone else's opinions other than my own. But, thank you. Frasmatas, did you hear Trump said that Armenia will allow its airspace to be used to strike Iran? Yes. Oh, that's retarded.

I mean, they were already using Azerbaijan, right? Especially in 12-day war. But, yeah, Pashtian. I mean, he deleted the tweet. immediately after putting it up. Do you think Armenia is still sore about their little war with Russia, right? They are, yes, very much so. Well, there's so a few things.

One of it has to do with when they got their ass kicked by Azerbaijan, Turkey over Garnakarva. And they wanted the Russians effectively come in to assist. I mean, well, it's like, dude, how, you can't have it both ways, right? You can't lean hard to the West. and then get your ass kicked in the war and then get pissed off at Russia for not coming to your assistance. I think you're thinking of Georgia.

Yeah. But yet, there's still passion on and it didn't be a bit sore, yes. Yeah, so I think that's what's going on there. We should definitely talk about this leaked internal Pentagon email. Now, I want to be really clear here. There's a plan in the military for everything. There's a plan to invade Luxembourg. There's a plan to, you know,

whatever, to invade Vanuatu. But that said, there's an internal email that was leaked that proposes that the U.S. should get even with the fact that the U.K. didn't do enough to help the Americans attack Iran by reassessing its support for Britain's claim to the Balkans. And in general, that the U.S. should no longer endorse European claims to imperial possessions and that Spain should be thrown out of NATO because Spain didn't allow U.S. warplans to fly over Spain or to participate in the attack on Iran.

And I'm like, I mean, it's really, really dumb, but I'm like, I guess I don't think the U.S. should support European claims to distant colonies anyway. What the problem with that is Puerto Rico. Right, right. And Guam and the Mariana Islands and the list goes on, the U.S. Virgin Islands. We have lots of colonies. That's kind of a hard thing.

I mean, this feels dumb, though. I mean, it's like on some level I kind of wanted to do it. But I got to be honest, I wanted him to invade Greenland. I was curious. I would have my apartment like, whoa, this is astonishing. I mean, you're going after European state as opposed to going after Venezuela. one after the Middle East, you know, make Europe pay a price. I'm only half joking on that. Yeah, I mean, this feels dumb. It feels petty. I mean, it's Trump. So fair.

Totally petty. That's, yeah. Petty is his middle name, right? I mean, no doubt. Well, anyway, so, I mean, look, look, I always thought it was ridiculous that they, that, you know, all these, that, you know, France still has Tahiti and New Cal, You know, all these claims should just, I mean, these countries should be given, I guess they should be given their independence if they want them, right? Shall we just say that? I mean, not all of them want it, but. I mean, but if you're thinking of like Africa, for example, and France's influence in some of those African nations. So this kind of, quote unquote, hunter in order to effectively remove French control from those African nations, France still maintain. a huge amount of leverage in many of those countries, even though, you know, supposedly they're

independent, quote-unquote democracies. No, it just feels petty. I mean, if the U.S. wants to exert wait and effectively saying, well, NATO didn't come to fight for us. And so we need to get back at NATO, then just leave NATO. And it's dumb on another count because it wasn't like the United States was attacked. The United States started a war of aggression and then turned to NATO and was like, hey, help us out in this war of aggression, something that none of them has. have to do, right? Like, if Estonia attacks Russia, the U.S. doesn't have to come to Estonia's aid. Hey, you earn that ass weapon, you get that beating, right? It's outrageous that the U.S. And I guess maybe it's not too outrageous. I mean, if you think of Libya, for example,

you had Britain and France effectively helped the United States bomb a country into submission with Saddafi getting sadomized by a machete. Yeah, I don't know. It feels petty. It feels dumb. You started a war, finish it on your own. Right. Well, that's, I mean, it's, I mean, obviously, Trump is not first in all this, right? I mean, George W. Bush had his freedom fries moment because, and even renamed them in the, in the House of Representatives because he didn't, he was pissed off at the French for not helping us invade Iraq. You know, looking back, the French were obviously very right not to help. I mean, you know, that, that, that, that decision aged well. I mean, I guess a bigger question, when a country is brazenly petty and transactional,

the way that the Trump administration is presenting American foreign policy, when there's no generosity, when there's the sense like you have to kiss the ring. And does that, how does that impact the perception of this country around the world? Is it really just speaking the quiet part out loud, J.T. Or is it something genuinely new? I think it's saying it quite a part out loud. I mean, like, Joe Biden was able to get the Europeans to effectively burn their economists to the ground in order to assist in a war against Russia. I put that in context. Like, I know merits is talking about 20, 39, we're going to be a military power in Europe. Okay, buddy, maybe. What I do know is apparently your factories have fallen apart.

You are bleeding jobs left and right. And it's not just Germany. Germany is the beating heart of Europe, what really used to be. And so Germany is taking a hit, like let's imagine what's happening to the other economies. The UK was at the point where they were talking about we did they need alone from the IMF. Again, France, same thing, right? All of these European economies are deeply in debt. And I can tell you, after being there, the cost of energy in Europe is significantly high than the cost of energy was in the United States.

And so you effectively says, okay, We're going to burn down our economies by not using the resource that is in our best interest to use, which is Russian energy. And we're going to allow the U.S. to push us and whip us up into this particular fervor to do so. If you can get them to do that, like, you know what I mean? Like, it's very over the top. And it is this level of influence in regards to this kind of pettiness. I think he's saying the quiet part out loud. I think he's just so grotesque

the way that he does it. He just exposes what America actually is. I think that's what it is. I mean, you could say that maybe Trump is more grotesque with it. Maybe, true. But we've been putting screws to Venezuela for a very long time. We've been putting the screws to Iran for a very long time. We've dropped, knocked over Syria.

Like, you can go down the list of things that we've done where Trump wasn't even in office. Right. Well, the thing is also, look, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure neither Donald Trump nor the U.S. government can kick any NATO member out of NATO, right? I'm pretty sure that has to be done by a vote of the NATO membership, right? And that's being unanimous, doesn't it? Well, I don't even think there's anything in the thing that allows that they kick a country out.

I could be wrong with this. Yeah, I think that's, I think that I think you're right. I mean, I think it's like the Hotel California, right? Like you can check in, but you can never leave. Right, right. Right. I could be wrong. And so the audience can fact check the honest. But yeah, I don't think there's a way, I don't think there's provision in it in the sense of kicking a country. All right. Let's ask a few, answer a few more questions here. Daniel, BTS, weak move by John PBD openly supports Israel. That's not even debatable. Forget about French colonies, Andomandarake says. Collis wants to decolonize Russia.

Yeah, she does. And she's sexy as, oh, get up. And what does that mean, decolonize Russia? I mean, Russia's not a colony. Basically, take Russia down into small little fiefdoms of sorts that make them more manageable and controllable, because, as she's pointed out, it's such a big country. It's so big. D.M.

Did she have a more than one occasion? They've been very clear about it. Well, the Russian Federation is only 50% or so of the landmass of the former Soviet Union. So it's already been considerably downsized. Yes, it has been. I mean, even with the First World War, right? When Lennon went into it, one of the big issues that they were having was effectively that parts of it had been ripped away in essence. I mean, Putin has even mentioned that.

This idea of the way Lennon went into the country, the country was effectively severed. Kaelis, I love her to death. She looks like my ex. But she is dumb as a box of rocks. I swear to God she is. but she's When you ever get together with a woman who looked substantially like one of your exes, I kind of feel like that's weird.

Is it? For me. I mean, you know, it's just sort of like, I would be like, I might be thinking, like, I might call her by the name of my ex. I might like see. I don't know. It's like, well, these people who always have like a type, right? And I, like, one of my former really good friends, he was like that.

He had a type. Hungarians and like a certain type of Hungarian. It's like only Hungarians. And it was kind of like, you know, it's a big world, even in Central Europe. Like, come on, go wild. Go for a Romanian or a check, you know, why not? I have a type. I mean, my girlfriends have been, so she was, okay, after I left my wife, or after my wife left me, or basically after we broke up, we went to our opposites. Like we went to the opposite person from the... See, that seems normal.

Said it one more time. I'm sorry. That seems normal to me. That's what I... That seems normal. That seems like a normal reaction to a relationship blowing up. Yeah. I mean, it was...

It's wow, right? I mean, look, personally, I think Keyless is attractive. She does put me in mind of my ex. But it's... I don't know. I guess I never... even thought about one way to other about going to a similar person. It wouldn't bother me, by the way, if I ended up with a similar person who was similar to the other person.

She's a little severe. Yeah, I don't know. But she's a little, she's a little severe. I would be a little, like, scared. I would just be scared. She's a little bit of the Ilsa She Wolf of the SS vibe. I mean, she's not ugly by any means, but, you know. I think, Kayla's. Yeah. No, I don't think she's ugly. She's intense, and she's like a... She is intense. She's dumb as a box. It's scary.

Yeah, I tend to be a sucker for a sweet. It's just outrageous. Yeah, like a sweet face, even if the girl's not really sweet. But, you know, all right. Let's, thank you so much for the 20 bucks, sneaker dad. Sorry, I haven't been interacting lately. Well, we missed you, and thanks for being back. Paula, I'm in the UK and our energy bills are the highest than any other European country,

all because our stupid. government and their net zero BS. Yeah, that's interesting point, right? So the net zero stuff, it is having an economic impact. I resent as someone who thinks the environment is the number one issue in the world. I really do. And I think climate change is the existential issue of our time. I don't think that that burden should fall on the working class, on farmers, and on the poor the way it is. I mean, here in New York, they just instituted congestion pricing, and that basically means that, like, lower Manhattan, where all the rich people live, it now costs $9 to extra to drive in there. This is after already paying like a $20 toll to cross the river to get into

Manhattan. Now, the only effect, obviously rich people don't care about $9. And what it's doing is it's, and you down there in D.C., you have those changeable algorithmic toll roads. It's like, right, like on interstate 66 and stuff, where, you know, basically rich people are like, oh, for a little extra money, I don't have to sit in traffic with all the peasants. I hate that. I really, I don't feel like, you know, trying to make the planet, trying to save the planet, ought to be something that falls on the poor. I don't believe in financial inducements. I feel like it should be done differently. I agree with you that it shouldn't fall on the poor because poor aren't the ones that did it.

It's that, right? Like most of the stuff is coming from corporations. It's not like, you know, random Joe Blow is the one that's effectively causing climate degradation. It is usually coming from governments, corporations. I mean, hell, the U.S. military and the footprint of the U.S. military is outrageous in regards to climate change. So, no, I agree with you. When the Yellow Vest movement took place and you had the French that tried to give them basically increased costs of gas in order to deal with climate change. And people freaked out.

They should have freaked out. because they were effectively taking a burden that they didn't cause and landing it squarely on the populations of people who can afford it, for lease. Agreed. Yeah. Totally agree. So, Robbie, I am ready for that ad when you are ready to give it to me. Okay. Happy Friday, says Waterways, and thanks for the $5. Any comment on the Sugar Baby Department of Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism? Well, I didn't know about that one. Actually, I was. I wanted to bring up Phelan, the Navy secretary that was fired for not going after Mark Kelly.

Did you see that? I mean, we're in the middle of a war. They are sending military on and everything else from the standpoint of the Navy. And the Navy secretary, they cut him loose because apparently they wanted him to go after Mark Kelly. And he refused to do so because the judge told them that not to do so. Basically, the judge said, this is illegal. You can't do this. and supplementary.

Hold that thought because I've got to read the ad. All right, then. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, no, my fault. Still haven't tried 1775 coffee. Now is your shot. The 1775 starter kit just dropped. Only 1,000 units.

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A father is strong enough to stir up your coffee and your mother-in-law's opinions and a black 1775 tumbler. $170 worth of coffee and gear. Yours for $99. This is for the ones who've been watching 1775 blow up on Rumble, wondering if it's actually worth it. Spoiler, it is. Go to 1775 coffee.com slash studio and grab your starter kit before they're gone. Bold beans, clean fuel at a morning routine that stands for something just like Rumble does. And I guess I will be putting that up.

I guess I can probably now that I'm running Rumble Studio, read these directly without Robbie. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, that's really cool. Usually I don't see it. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. I like the interface. You know, what do you guys think?

You know, both on YouTube and Robles. Not having the people up top. Like, we're like sitting at the bottom. It looks a little weird. But otherwise, it looks good. And I like it. I can see the totals at the top. Yeah, I like that too.

I also like the, I feel like the image is, clearer too. Oh, it's much clearer. It's a much clear image. The audio sounds better. It's this is going to be an all around upgrade. It's just going to be a matter of just figuring out, you know, just the interface and how the UI works. It's like anything else. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Cool. No issues. I hate it. I definitely like the top part. I like being able to see who's coming from where at the top. Yeah, yeah. I like to see that too for sure. Super. It makes feel good when the numbers are growing up bad when they're going down it's it's like the stock market so all right so let's see um one more question here thanks for the donation man child

lockheed martin c oh sorry i j t you had thoughts and i interrupted you please finish your well you're fine i was putting out i don't know if you saw a story about the navy um the you what is it the u what is it secretary of the navy was fired i mean there were several people they were fired but he was one of the people that were fired. When Trump was asked about it, Trump was like, yeah, he's a hard-charging guy, you know, but he can't get along with people, et cetera. Come to find out, what it boiled down to was that Mark Kelly told people, look, you know, you don't have to follow illegal orders.

That's what he told with the military. If the president is asking you to do something illegal, you don't have to do it. Trump didn't like this. And HECF was wanting to punish or Trump wanted to punish Mark Kelly. A judge said you cannot do them. You can't punish him. Hex-F tried to push Phelan in order to go after Kelly. Phelan was head of the basically secretary of the Navy.

Phelan said no. A judge said no, so I'm not going to do it. In which case, they got rid of failure. So basically, they wanted him to blow off a judge's order in order to go after Bart Kelly for telling people to follow the law. That's astonishing. That is crazy. Okay.

Manchild, thanks for the donation. Lockheed Martin CEO sees Trump's Pentagon as a golden opportunity for growth. Well, clearly, 42% of the CEO blatantly, I mean, I do feel like a moron for not having bought defense stocks when I was a young man. Although I was always broke, so there's that. Anyway, with the CEO blatantly applauding for conflict, should there be a push for reigning? in waste, fraud, and abuse of contractors. So I have thoughts about this. First of all, the system of contracting is totally fucked up, JT. I mean, I don't know if you know this. My father explained this to me because he worked in the military for many years. So let's say we decide, you and I are

the head of the DOD, we're like, oh, we want to buy 100 jet fighters. We don't put out a request for proposal to a bunch of manufacturers and say, what's the lowest price you can make these planes for us. No. What happens is it doesn't work that way at all. We call up Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and we say, hey, listen, we're going to give you a $1 billion contract. How many planes can you make for us? And they're like, three, two maybe? Yeah. So that's how you end up with the $800 dollar toilet seat. Right. And I actually am going to go further. I don't think that there should be contractors. I think that if the U.S. military should make all of its shit its own fucking self,

I think as much as possible, you know, like if we want to make Army radios, there should be U.S. government, U.S. Army Radio Corporation that makes radios. I think there should be U.S. Air Force FighterJet Co makes fighter jets. And I know it does, I know it seems impractical. But I feel like it's the only way really to avoid like the waste. I mean, it reminds me of the health care system. In health care system, a for-profit health care system has like a profit incentive built in every step of the way.

Insurance is just an extra set of profits that have to be generated that don't do you or me any good at all. I mean, imagine if all doctors just worked and were well paid and worked for the U.S. government. and they were U.S. government employees, like someone who works at the State Department and processes passports. Well, that's one layer of profit that's out of the system. The only person that needs to make a profit is the person who's earning a salary. Similarly, I feel like with defense, you know, Lockheed Martin has to make money.

Northrop Grumman has to make money. But the government shouldn't have an interest in these people making money. We just want planes. We just want missiles. We just want bombs. We don't want, we don't need, we shouldn't be lining the pockets of these grifters. Agreed. And I think this, I think what people miss sometimes is they look at the military budget and they say, okay, our budget is 1.5 trillion, you know, $1 trillion.

And what they miss is the social return on investment. How much of that is actually going towards stuff, A, that we need and B, that has some kind of. The argument for social return on investment, SROI. Oh. Jesus, the phone was, I'm picked up. And whether or not there was a return on investment or not on all of the money that effectively is being dumped and spent. We have no idea because you can't even audit a Pentagon in any kind of real fashion that gets any kind of real answers. So, no, I agree with you.

We make assumptions about the capability of that military and the money that we effectively invest in that military. I would tell you the story. I used to watch American crime. There was a thing I think it's called American crime. And one of the cases were two women who started a company supplying things like nuts, bolts, screws, et cetera, to the military. And they made a mistake once in doing this and ended up sending, I think it was, I think they charged them, let's say like $200 or screw. And the military didn't catch it. And so they were like, hey, nobody's paying attention.

And so they start increasing the prices to like thousands of dollars for like screws and nuts. nuts and bolts and they got millions of dollars doing this until they got greedy, it made a mistake, in which case it took a human to look at it, in which case they got prosecuted for it. That went for years. And I guess my thing is that is probably more like reality than I think we realize, which is disturbing. It's very, very sad for sure. All right, we have a few more questions. Oh, oh, before a little comment, Israel has been gauzifying southern. Lebanon. Not only have they been carpet bombing, Southern Lebanon, they're doing exactly what they

went in Gaza. They have special demolition teams that are going in to destroy every building, every house, every business that somehow survived the carpet bombing. And they're just completely leveling. They say that these buildings were used as outposts by Hezbollah. Obviously, that's nonsense. You know, that's not true. These are private homes and private businesses. I don't know. I don't even know what to say. I mean, it's just Israelis being Israel. Israelis, right? They're just doing their shit. And until they're cut off, nothing's going to change. It's disturbing. I mean, again, strategic defeat. I think it's necessary. I mean, Israel exists as an extension of the U.S. power. U.S. power is broken.

A country of a million people can't sustain themselves in that way. They have a blank check. All right. Let's ask them. Let's get to the questions here. Thanks for the $20, Mateo. This is for you, Jamar. Appreciateed your comments about Corey Booker last Friday. He's so pathetic.

Have you seen his Michigan fist, or I'm reading Fist speech from earlier this week? It's so R-worded. Michigan. Oh, Michigan First. Yeah, it probably says Michigan First Street. I get missed. I don't necessarily take time looking for things that Cory Booker is doing. In fact, I didn't even know Cory Booker was on a,

I haven't heard about court book if God knows how long. I'm assuming he's still in Congress, but I didn't necessarily. Oh, yeah, he's still in the Senate, yeah. And the Senate, I'm sorry, yeah, he's put her in about. I haven't heard the speech. He must be, he's always thinking about presidential aspirations. Is he? Always.

Always. He's the most, he at long, I don't know if this is still true, but for many years, he received more donations from Wall Street than any other member of the House or Senate. He's also a devout Zionist. And he would defend that ship that's taking place in Gaza in regards to the genocide. And Cory Booker has given speeches talking about how do we con black people into supporting a homicidal regime? Good luck. It's outrageous.

He was like, yeah, get him young. Zola Ruta, thanks for the $10. We only have a minute left. Do you guys think there will be any change with how unpopular Israel is in relation to, regard to Palestine. Yep, I do. They're just going to get more unpopular. They've more, more Americans support the Palestinians than support the Israel, the right of Israel to exist. That is just going to increase, right? I mean, I don't think that's... It is going to increase. And I'm curious, what do you think this is going to affect

Democrats? That's a good question. Which is like primaries? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, yeah. The problem is there's no place for anti-Zanism. to turn, right? Not in the voting booth. Both parties are totally in bed with Israel. But can they maintain that considering? I mean, Israel is putting hundreds of millions of dollars in order to con people or buy people. If you have to put that much money out, that gives a certain amount of clarity in regards to your popularity. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, so I'm going to bring in Robbie here. Robbie, okay, we're going to complicate this. We've got to do the raid

Yep. And so, and I think what happens is when I hit the button for the other thing, I lose the ability to talk here. So, well, what's going to happen? As soon as you, as soon as you, as soon as you, as soon as you, so basically what you'll do is that you'll play the outro. Once the outro is done, go ahead and hit in-stream. I'm going to start the raid now. There'll be a little bit of a switchover when we go over to TMI because you have to log in the TMI and then send me the Rumble Studio link. And then we'll be up and running again. So it'll take like, it'll take maybe 60 seconds for us to complete the handshake. It won't be bad. Okay, all right, here we go.

Thanks everyone for tuning in. Really appreciate you. J.T., Robbie, always pleasure. Thanks for doing this adventure with me. We will see you guys Monday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. We're here Monday through Friday. We'll also have the Q&A show on Monday, 12 noon in case you can't do the morning. But you should really do both because what else do you have to do? All right, here we go. I'm about to hit it. then here we go god the video quality is so much better now in what it was this is freaking awesome it looks so good